


Broken Slipper

by StaceyDawe



Category: Cinderella (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Animal Abuse, Child Abuse, Cynical, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Mental Health Issues, Revisionist Fairy Tale, Social Commentary, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24261757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StaceyDawe/pseuds/StaceyDawe
Summary: A very cynical retelling of the fairy tale Cinderella. Abandon hope.
Relationships: Cinderella/Prince (Cinderella - Fairy Tale)
Kudos: 5





	Broken Slipper

**Author's Note:**

> Don't worry, I'm not usually this cynical.

Once upon a time, there was a nobleman named Edmund. He owned a humble estate where he lived with his wife, Sara, and young daughter, Ella. Edmund had fought in wars for his kingdom, but had little to show for it. For the king was greedy and did little for even his most loyal of subjects. Edmund and his family were better off than a lot of families in the kingdom, but still struggled to afford things like basic healthcare. Eventually, Sara got very sick. Edmund owned a small farm that helped him earn some money, but trying to find an affordable doctor was difficult. The sicker Sara got, the harder it was to afford doctor visits and medicine.  
“Can’t you ask the king for help?” Ella asked her father “You spent years defending the kingdom, surely he can spare some money for you”.  
“I tried, dear” Edmund replied “but the king says he has his own family to look after and that if he did it for me he would have to do it for all his former knights”.  
“Well he should” Ella pouted. She knew that the king’s son had been sick and had doctors from several kingdoms attend to him and he was cured. Why was it only royalty that got that privilege?  
Despite Edmund’s best efforts, Sara succumbed to her illness and died.  
“Who will you marry now?” His friends had the nerve to ask him at Sara’s funeral.  
“Why should I remarry?” He asked.  
“Society doesn’t look Kindly on single fathers” people told him “a girl needs a mom”. Right, the same society that made it so difficult to save his wife judged single fathers harshly. How dare he be widowed and have a child. Clearly it meant something was wrong with him because nobody cared enough to help save his wife. Single dads were sometimes assumed to be dangerous because they had the nerve not to die the same time as their wife when they had a child to raise. Busybody mothers would start looking at him like he had kidnapped Ella or was out to hurt her friends.  
Not long after, Edmund got word that his former commander had died, leaving behind a widow and two daughters. The commander had not had a farm, like Edmund had, and had left little money behind for his family.  
“Maybe you should marry your commander’s widow” people said “after all he did save your life during the war. That family needs someone to look after them”.  
“Right” Edmund said cynically “but we all know, while I am incompetent to look after Ella, a woman is capable of raising her two daughters on her own”.  
It was true, the widow’s ability to raise two daughters was unquestioned by society. However, it was near impossible for a woman to find a job, especially when they had to stay home with children. Women needed husbands for financial stability and men needed wives to look after children. That was the way society had decided things ought to be and it was not his to question.  
So Edmund married the widow, whose name was Felicia, and had her and her daughters, Margarose and Flavia, move in with him and Ella. Two families merged who didn’t really know each other. Edmund and Ella were humble, kind-hearted, and hard-working. In contrast, Felicia and her daughters were pompous, selfish, and lazy. Both families were unprepared. Ella showed her new stepsisters to their new room when they moved in.  
“We have to sleep in these beds?” Margarose complained.  
“I thought there’d be more sun” Flavia moaned.  
“There is a trick to getting more sunlight” Ella said, attempting to demonstrate with the window shutters. Flavia shoved her out of the way. Felicia was watching from the doorframe. Ella looked up at Felicia, expecting her to discipline her daughter for shoving her. Felicia didn’t bat an eye at the abuse. Flavia broke the window shutter and started moaning.  
“Ella will help you fix things up” Felicia said, as though it were something Ella had promised already.  
“But I have other chores” Ella protested.  
“Oh surely you have time for your other chores after you help my daughters” Felicia said, acting as though her expectations were completely normal. This would give Ella no time to herself that evening. Edmund entered the doorframe with Felicia.  
“it’s okay, Ella, you can skip your other chores for today” Edmund said, wanting to keep the peace. He still felt like he had control in his household, everyone just needed to settle in.  
For the rest of the day, Ella endured derogatory and judgemental comments from her new stepsisters while Edmund endured the same from his new wife. Edmund was passive, trying to avoid any conflict. He hoped once things settled, the new members of the household would calm themselves. Ella was not having it. She tried too and up to her stepsisters, but they continued to physically push her to the floor. When she told Edmund, he persuaded the girls to reluctantly apologize.  
Over the next few days, the stepsisters continued to order Ella around but only when Edmund was outside working on the farm, or out running errands. They didn’t want him to see what they were doing to his daughter. When physical force failed to make Ella comply with their expectations, the stepsisters called to their mother, who would guilt trip Ella into doing what they expected by reminding her this was all new to them and they just lost their father.  
Eventually, Edmund started asking Felicia and her daughters to do their part with household chores and farm work. However, the stepsisters continued to be lazy and make excuses about how they had never been taught to do chores or farm work. Sometimes, behind Edmund’s back, they would bully Ella into doing their chores by threatening to hurt her.  
Felicia and her daughters had not been there for very long when Edmund was suddenly called to war again.  
“Why must you go?” Ella asked “What has the king ever done for us?”  
“Unfortunately, if I don’t go, the king has the power to imprison me and take away our property and wealth, leaving you penniless and with no place to go” Edmund explained.  
None of this was fair but Edmund had no choice but go to war. Once he was gone, Felicia started to run things differently. She allowed her daughters to laze about all day while Ella did all the work. Felicia never even attempted to discipline her daughters when they hit or kicked Ella, so they started doing it with increased frequency. Ella just hoped it would end when her father returned. Unfortunately, word soon arrived that he had died in battle. Then things got worse.  
When Felicia had assumed Edmund was returning, her abuse towards Ella was a little more subtle. She made excuses to justify it. With him dead she knew there would be no repercussions to giving her own daughters what she thought was the best treatment while condemning Ella to be treated like no more than a servant in her own house. There was no attempt to hide it any longer. Ella’s stepfamily had her attend to the fireplace, making it so she was always covered in cinders. “Cinderella” they started to mockingly call her. Ella had less and less time to herself and was made to work harder than one could be reasonably expected. If she tried to refuse, they beat her down with physical abuse and also emotional abuse in the form of claiming her parents had not raised her with enough of a work ethic. They claimed Ella’s parents had not raised her with enough kindness or humility to follow reasonable expectations. Ella knew these claims were unreasonable, but she had no strength to argue. Over time, she started believing this cruel taunting on some level.  
Felicia also changed the way the farm was run, in order to increase profits. She bought more animals, crammed them together into limited space, and beat them to increase production of milk and eggs. Ella wept for the animals, who she empathized with strongly.  
“Stop your crying, Cinderella” Felicia would say “It’s unbecoming of a lady”.  
Her stepsister teased her for it as well. Over time, Cinderella’s mental health was deteriorating, to the point she had conversations with mice and birds in her head. She was convinced they could speak to her like people.  
Cinderella wanted to leave her stepfamily. She wanted to be just plain Ella again. But she had no place else to go. She had no close relatives, no job prospects, no suitors, and Felicia refused to give her educational opportunities. Flavia, who considered herself clever, was given private tutors for many subjects. When Cinderella listened in on lessons, she felt she understood better than Flavia did. But she was harshly disciplined if she tried to learn too. Felicia insisted that Cinderella’s lot in life was to be a household servant. Her mental illness, delusions of talking mice and birds, would keep her from succeeding in education or marriage. Of course Felicia would not pay to get her the help she needed. Margarose, who considered herself beautiful, got to invite suitors from all over the kingdom to court her. Cinderella was told no suitor would be interested in her, with her mental illness and her dirty dresses and face. Cinderella began to lose hope of ever leaving the service of her cruel stepfamily. How could she get any opportunity at a life of her own when her stepmother controlled pretty much everything?  
Meanwhile, she heard that the prince was also having trouble finding a suitor. He had to get married by his twenty-first birthday in order to keep the rights to inherit the throne, but he was a difficult man to get along with. His parents had tried setting him up with numerous eligible princesses and noblewomen from neighbouring kingdoms, but they all found him too difficult. The prince and his parents were getting desperate, so they decided to throw a ball and invite every eligible young maiden in the kingdom.  
Coincidently, the ball happened to be scheduled for Cinderella’s sixteenth birthday, making her just old enough to marry a man the prince’s age. She saw an opportunity when the invitations arrived at her house. Felicia also saw an opportunity, to marry off one of her daughters to the prince so she could be wealthy. Felicia began immediately coaching her daughters on how to get the prince to choose them, encouraging Margarose to play up her supposed beauty and Flavia to play up her supposed cleverness. They almost forgot Cinderella was in the room, until she spoke up and asked what she should do to attract the prince. Her stepfamily scorned and jeered at her, telling her she had no chance. Felicia told Cinderella she could not go because she had nothing suitable to wear. This was untrue, Cinderella had a dress hidden away in the attic that had belonged to her mother. She decided she would keep quiet for now and bring the dress out last minute so her stepfamily would have a harder time finding a last-minute excuse not to bring her.  
On the day of the ball, when her stepfamily was preparing to leave, Cinderella showed up in her mother’s dress.  
“Well, I found something suitable to wear” she said proudly.  
Her stepsisters were angry and brutally tore the dress to shreds. They left with their mother, in a carriage, and headed for the ball, while Cinderella was left to weep.  
Suddenly a glowing ball appeared, and then grew into a full-sized woman with a magic wand. The woman introduced herself.  
“I am your fairy godmother” she said “your father once brought me aid in the war, now I am here to grant you one wish for your sixteenth birthday”.  
Cinderella got excited. Perhaps there was some hope in the world after all. She could wish for a way out of her situation. She could wish to learn a trade or become rich or get a job far away.  
“there’s a catch” said the fairy godmother “whatever you wish for will disappear at midnight”.  
What good was this? She couldn’t wish for anything useful, not anything lasting.  
“My father fights for the good of the kingdom and this is all he gets in return?” Cinderella mused in frustration “one temporary wish for his daughter after he is gone?”  
“I don’t make the rules” said the fairy godmother “fairy law is ancient and unchanging, regardless of the changes in society over time”.  
Cinderella needed to think of a wish she could make that could result in a lasting way out of her situation. It seemed the only way was to get the prince to choose her as his bride. So she wished for a beautiful dress, makeover, and carriage to take her to the ball. The fairy godmother granted her wish and even said she would let Cinderella keep the glass slippers that went along with it. The glass slippers seemed like the least practical thing to let her keep, but Cinderella politely thanked the fairy just the same.  
Cinderella arrived late to the ball. She didn’t have much time to win the prince over. He looked tired from dancing with all the women. When he saw Cinderella arrive, the prince perked up. He was glad someone new had arrived. He didn’t think to introduce himself, he assumed everyone knew who he was, nor did he think to ask for her name, learning about other people bored him.  
“I’m glad to see a new face” he said “these girls are starting to bore me”.  
He presumptuously took her hand and begun leading the dance. He didn’t think there was any need to ask first. She went along with it. They danced silently at first.  
“I like you” the Prince said eventually “you don’t seem as demanding as other girls”.  
“Thank-you” said Cinderella “It’s true, I don’t set high expectations”.  
The prince laughed derisively.  
“I think I have a lot to offer” he said “confidence, good looks, riches…of course I like women to be compliant and agreeable”.  
Cinderella was starting to see why many women found this prince hard to get along with. He was so self-absorbed demanded women follow his expectations while hardly having any of their own. Still she was desperate and willing to play along by feeding his ego.  
“Of course” she said “who would expect any less? You deserve a woman who caters to your whims. One who gets you”.  
“I’m glad you understand” the prince said “It is refreshing to meet a girl who doesn’t talk about herself so much”.  
“Oh it is so much more interesting to talk about you” Cinderella said, trying to flatter him.  
The prince went on to tell her stories about his merger achievements. He completely forgot to ask her for her name. When midnight drew near, Cinderella began to panic. She would have to leave before the magic ran out and he saw her plain, ugly, crazy, self. She had not given him any way to find her. Then she remembered the one permanent gift the fairy godmother had given her. The glass slippers had a practical use after all. As she slipped away, she left one slipper on the steps of the palace, so that he would know to look for the woman with the matching shoe and the foot that it had been custom-made for. She could only hope he would still want her once he found out her identity.  
Cinderella got home before her stepfamily. They had not recognized her at the ball. However, when they saw she did not have her chores done, they beat her and locked her in the attic for the night. She desperately hoped her plan for the prince to find her and get her out would work, but it seemed like a long shot.  
Lucky for her, once the prince set his mind on something, there was no talking him out of it. He had made up his mind that the girl in the glass slipper, despite her unexpected early departure, was the most suitable woman for him. His parents and servants made a few attempts to persuade him that other women, more easy to find, were more suited to him, but he was stubborn. So a search was put into motion. The Grand Duke went to every house in the kingdom and asked every young woman to try on the glass slipper. The prince just hoped that the woman he was searching for did not have parents he would have to impress.  
When word of the search got to Cinderella’s house. Felicia was determined to keep Cinderella in the attic and not allow her to try on the slipper. When they heard how small the slipper was, Flavia and Margarose got desperate. Margarose cut off her heel in attempt to make her foot small enough. Flavia cut off her toes. Cinderella sat in the attic, rolling her eyes at the commotion she was hearing. She secretly had the matching slipper with her, she just needed a way to escape the attic when the Duke came.  
“I hope one of you is the one” the Duke said when he arrived “if not, our next stop is the poor district. Imagine how it will look if the Prince marries a girl from there. How could she ever adjust to the palace?”  
“It would be shameful indeed” Felicia said, as her daughters prepared to try on the glass slipper. Suddenly, loud noises came from the attic. Cinderella was trying to get the Duke’s attention.  
“Who’s up there?” The Duke asked.  
“Just a serving girl” Felicia replied with annoyance.  
When Felicia opened the attic door to try and quiet Cinderella down, Cinderella bolted past her with the other glass slipper.  
“Sorry for the noise” Cinderella said to the Duke as she came down the stairs “I was finding the other glass slipper for you”.  
“Excellent” said the Duke “who owns it?”  
“I do” Cinderella said.  
Somewhat disappointed she didn’t fit his idea of nobility, the Duke had no choice but try the slipper on Cinderella. It fit. So he brought her back to the palace. Servants made snide comments about her apparent low station in life.  
“I’m sorry I’m not of higher stature” Cinderella said to the prince “just an uneducated orphan servant girl”.  
“I’m relieved” the prince said “that you’re not some girl from high nobility whose parents I have to impress, that you’re better off with me than without. What is your name?”  
“They call me Cinderella” she said “but I used to be Ella”.  
“Ella, will you marry me?” The prince asked.  
Ella said yes and so they were married. The prince was difficult but Ella found ways to handle him over time. She was just glad she didn’t have to deal with her abusive stepfamily any longer. The prince got to keep his royal status and Ella got to be herself again. Though every once in a while, when he was angry, the prince called her Cinderella to remind her where she would be without him.  
And they all lived crappily ever after.


End file.
